People on the Move 6.22.22| Housing Finance Magazine

Rebecca Louie Becomes CEO of Wakeland Housing

Rebecca Louie has been promoted to president and CEO of Wakeland Housing and Development Corp. in San Diego.

She steps into the top post after serving as vice president and chief operating officer. Since starting at Wakeland in 2005, Louie has overseen the development and operation of 41 affordable housing communities, creating more than 2,200 homes for families, seniors, veterans, transition-age youth, and people experiencing homelessness.

In her new role, she will oversee an organization with an annual budget of $6 million and a staff of 44 employees based in San Diego and Los Angeles offices. The firm has nine affordable communities under construction.

A Native Alaskan and a member of the Tlingit-Haida tribe, Louie is also the first woman and the first person of color to lead the company.

She succeeds founding president and CEO Ken Sauder, who retired after 23 years building the organization into a leading developer of affordable housing in California.

Conifer Realty Announces President, Other Moves

Sam Leone has been promoted to president of Conifer Realty, where he is responsible for the strategic direction, culture, growth, and overall management of the company in addition to overseeing strategic growth opportunities, including new development,

strategic partnerships, and investment. As president, Leone also leads Conifer’s executive leadership team, which is responsible for developing and spearheading Conifer’s strategic plan and associated initiatives while cultivating a collaborative culture that encourages leaders to rise at every level of the company.

Leone joined Conifer in 2007 and most recently served as executive vice president, development. Throughout his 15-year tenure at Conifer, he has overseen more than 60 new developments comprised of 5,000-plus homes across four states. Leone was honored by his peers with the Conifer Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008.

Barb Ross has been promoted to chief administrative officer. In this role, she partners with Leone and the executive leadership team to develop and lead Conifer’s strategic plan and associated initiatives and creating a collaborative culture. Ross also provides executive oversight of the human capital/human resource strategy, focusing on employee recruitment, engagement, development, and retention.

Ross previously served as executive vice president, human resources, and has a track record of leveraging talent management, employee engagement, and human resource operations to support optimal business goal outcomes.

Peter Wysocki has been named vice president, asset management. He drives portfolio and asset profitability, net operating income, and valuation growth. Wysocki develops multi-year strategic business plans for Conifer’s portfolio and ensures annual budgets are aligned with strategic portfolio objectives. Additionally, he contributes to the analysis of new investment opportunities, including market research, revenue forecasting, and financial analysis.

Wysocki brings 10 years of industry experience to his role, most recently serving as manager of finance and asset management served for Balfour Beatty Investments.

Bill Ledbetter has been named senior vice president, information technology. In this role, he develops the strategy, road map, and direct technology, as well as automation and innovation, for Conifer Realty at an enterprise level. He recently served as senior vice president, enterprise technology, at Univision Communications.

Headquartered in Rochester, New York, Conifer Realty has developed over 21,000 affordable housing units across more than 300 residential communities.

Gaber Joins PNC Bank

Michael Gaber has joined PNC Bank as senior vice president—originations, focusing on California.

He will concentrate on helping developers in California and surrounding areas with the placement of their equity and debt for their low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties. An industry veteran, he joins PNC after 24 years with another syndicator, serving in many different capacities, including chief operating officer, where he oversaw several divisions including originations, underwriting, asset management, fund management, and development.

Gaber has also served on various industry boards throughout his career, including three years as president of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition and as a trustee for the National Association of Home Builders as well as serving as a board member for the California Housing Consortium, National Housing Conference, and New York State Association for Affordable Housing.

JLL Capital Adds to Team

Leif Olsen has joined the affordable housing production team at JLL Capital Markets. He is based in the Denver office.

As a director, Olsen focuses on originating debt and providing capital markets solutions to sponsors both locally and nationally.

He joins JLL after almost six years as assistant vice president of affordable originations with Lument, formerly known as Hunt Real Estate Capital, where he originated multifamily housing loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and successfully managed over 100 affordable transactions from prescreening through closing. Prior to this role, he served as a Federal Housing Administration senior underwriting analyst with Walker & Dunlop.

Tiber Hudson Welcomes Partner

Joshua Schonfeld has joined Tiber Hudson, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm specializing in tax-exempt and taxable debt financing for multifamily housing and health care facilities around the country.

Schonfeld, partner, focuses his practice on multifamily housing with an emphasis on affordable housing finance.

He recently assisted in the launch of the affordable housing platform at NewPoint Real Estate Capital. Prior to that, he spent 21 years with Freddie Mac, leading the team of attorneys specializing in multifamily affordable housing programs nationwide. He led legal development work on numerous new executions, including tax-exempt loans, mezzanine loans, Freddie Mac’s reentry into the LIHTC market, and Green Advantage, the company’s suite of sustainable lending executions. Schonfeld was also the lead Freddie Mac attorney in connection with the development and implementation of the HFA Initiative, a program to assist housing finance agencies.

NYC Housing Partnership Names General Counsel

Theresa Omansky has been appointed general counsel at the New York City Housing Partnership.

She brings extensive legal experience working on affordable housing transactions utilizing tax-exempt bond financing, tax credit allocations and acquisition, construction, and permanent financing.

Prior to joining the Housing Partnership, Omansky was an associate counsel at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (FHLBNY), where she provided legal advice and support on the FHLBNY Affordable Housing Program and to other operational and service departments.

For four decades, the nonprofit Housing Partnership has led relationships among private-sector developers, financial institutions, and city, state, and federal agencies that have created and preserved more than 70,000 low- and moderate-income housing units in the five boroughs, leveraging over $7 billion in private financing and utilized more than $500 million in subsidies for affordable housing.